‘Nobody helped,’ says witness who watched man die in Mecklenburg jail
Abdou Bah didn’t know who Bryon Miller was, but in Miller’s last moments he did his best to save his life.
While the men were in their bunks in the early morning hours of Jan. 18, Miller started gasping for air, Bah said, accompanied by his attorney, in a recent interview with The Charlotte Observer.
Bah, 35, says he and others in the jail alerted multiple corrections officers that Miller was having a medical emergency.
“Nobody helped me, they wouldn’t even come inside,” Bah said.
Miller, 49, is the sixth person to die since January 2022 at the Mecklenburg County jail.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the State Bureau of Investigation investigated each death. In all but one case, with Miller’s still pending, inspectors said officers failed to properly observe those in custody and found violations of state law.
Over the past decade, deaths in North Carolina jails have skyrocketed, going from 17 in 2011 to 76 in 2021, according to DHHS data.
Jail officials said in a statement Miller died of a medical emergency, but his exact cause of death and other details haven’t been made public. An autopsy and investigative report are pending. It’s not clear whether recently reported staffing struggles contributed to the response in Miller’s case.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden would not comment on the death due to the SBI’s ongoing investigation. McFadden said in a recent interview with the Observer deaths in the jail are taken seriously and the department does everything it can to help investigators.
“It’s an emotional, traumatic time for my staff also, because they work with these residents inside my detention center all the time,” McFadden said. “But we believe that we’re doing an excellent job in producing a great investigation.”
‘This man is dying’
Miller was arrested on Jan. 15 and died three days later.
He was charged with driving with a revoked license, possessing a stolen vehicle, possessing drug paraphernalia, and fleeing from police in the stolen vehicle.
Bah was booked into jail a day before Miller.
Bah was charged with trespassing, larceny, and breaking and entering at a business.
The men were being held together, along with others, in a large room with multiple bunks.
Most of the men were asleep when Miller began having trouble breathing, Bah said in an interview from jail, joined by his attorney Tim Emry.
He said Miller appeared to be in pain and sounded like he was gurgling or gasping.
Bah says he attempted to alert the guards.
“I was like man there’s something wrong with this man, he’s not breathing right,” Bah said.
The first corrections officer he talked to did not go to the bunk to check on Miller, Bah says.
He also tried to get the attention of a sergeant, then a captain.
Approximately five others were in the bunk area with Miller and Bah and they began yelling “This man is dying, come help us!” he recalled.
But, Bah said, no one came.
A few minutes later, Miller stopped moving. Bah said he tried pressing on his chest and doing anything he could to wake him back up.
“I started doing CPR and trying to shake him and try to wake him up,” Bah said. “He didn’t wake up.”
Even more time passed before officers came over, Bah recalls.
According to a statement from the sheriff’s office, Miller was found unresponsive at 5:07 a.m. Officers called a medical emergency and “promptly started resuscitation efforts.” At 5:24 a.m., Medic and Charlotte Fire arrived and took over. At 5:38 a.m., Miller was pronounced dead.
When officers began these resuscitation efforts, the bunk area was cleared out and Bah says he was placed in “the hole” — another term for solitary confinement — for the rest of the day. A spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office said Bah was placed in the Disciplinary Detention Unit for “being belligerent with the med nurse during med pass.”
Later, Bah was interviewed by the SBI about what he saw and his efforts to get Miller help, he and his lawyer say.
The Observer has been unable to reach Miller’s family.
He lived in Gastonia and was born in Ohio, according to his obituary. He “loved his family, music, sports, and cooking.” He is survived by his parents, two children, and sister.
The day Miller died, McFadden issued a statement saying: “MCSO is saddened by this untimely death, and we extend our deepest sympathies to Bryon Miller’s family and loved ones. The death of any person in our custody and care is always difficult and touches the humanity in us all.”
A spokesman for the jail said there are two main ways a person in-custody can get a guard’s attention. The first is by telling them directly, the second is by pressing a call button and speaking with them through an intercom. The sheriff’s office refused to say whether jail leaders are aware Bah and others tried to call for help.
The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office would not comment on what led them to find Miller unresponsive.
The investigation into Miller’s death is still pending, but investigations into the last year of deaths in the Mecklenburg jail show a pattern of problems, including failures at times to make observation rounds at the required frequency. Most who died did so due to a medical emergency.
Inspectors say some of these issues can be attributed to a lack of staffing and overcrowding at the jail.
Deaths in Mecklenburg jail
Additionally, inspectors say the jail was out of compliance and did not abide by state observation laws in June and December, according to semi-annual and annual inspection findings.
State law requires officers to make observation rounds at least twice an hour with no more than 40 minutes between rounds. In some cases noted in the inspections, officers went more than an hour without conducting their rounds. On suicide watch or for those in solitary confinement, the rule is that those in custody must be observed four times per hour on an irregular basis, according to the sheriff’s office.
Every time someone dies in the Mecklenburg County Jail, an investigation and inspection is required. The inspections are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. If an issue or violation of state law is cited, jail officials must submit a plan of correction, and that plan must be reviewed and approved by DHHS.
But despite issuing plans of correction, subsequent investigations by state officials showed continued issues.
McFadden said while sometimes rounds aren’t made as often as the standard set out in NC law, staff is always present.
Sheriff responds to deaths
The department is understaffed and overpopulated.
Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement saying the staffing shortage posed an “imminent threat to the safety of the inmates and staff.” At the time, the jail population was 1,407 and the number of staff vacancies was 159, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The detention center has 470 jobs overall, the Observer reported at the time.
Staffing continues to be a problem but is improving, McFadden said. Some trainees will fill around half of the existing detention center officer vacancies.
Because of the staffing shortage, the facility is overcrowded, according to jail inspectors. In a letter Chief inspector Chris Wood sent to McFadden in December of 2021, he said the jail should cut its population by nearly 30% to compensate for this.
At this time, the jail population was approximately 1,348 people.
As of March 17, it was 1,358.
McFadden said he can’t control who is arrested and who comes into the jail. He has to process and hold everyone who is arrested and brought to him.
A lot of people come into the jail with health and substance abuse problems, McFadden said.
“A lot of these people come in poor health,” McFadden said. “But they’re still being housed here and that’s a sad thing, and then they eventually expire, for whatever reason.
“We don’t take it lightly,” McFadden said. “It’s very traumatic for us. But we believe that we’re doing an excellent job in producing a great investigation, so the district attorney and SBI can properly go forward and determine the cause of death, including the manner of death.”
Emry, Bah’s lawyer, said now, more of his clients are afraid for their safety within the jail.
“There is a perception among attorneys and among those who are locked up that the deaths are increasing, and that it’s an increasingly dangerous place to be for a variety of reasons,” Emry said. “Most of which have to do with what they say are staffing shortages such that there’s neglect which sounds like is the case in this death.”
“More clients than ever before are voicing concerns to me about their safety and about their desire to get out of Mecklenburg County Jail due to the things they are observing,” Emry said.
Miller’s death still haunts Bah.
“I heard when he took his last breath, and it was a loud breath,” Bah said. “I think about it all the time, it’s stuck in my head, I can’t stop thinking about it.”
